~ Frugal living & travel blog

Monthly Archives: October 2011

Our trip had finally came to an end. Even before we board the plane, I already starting to feel a bit depressed about the whole idea of going back to work. I dreaded my work since Monday to Friday and I know I need to do something about it.

Breakfast with bacon

Have I already mentioned that our breakfast serves bacon? This one of the main reason we chose this hotel. I think we both have overdosed of bacon during this 3 days. We also ate a bowl of cococrunch with milk without failed every morning.

Mr. B showing his customized mini burger

Before we have to pack and check out. We did another round of photoshoot in our room with our souvenirs and newly bought matching T-shirts. After that, we dragged our luggage to our new friend, KC’s hotel and shared a taxi with them to the airport for 400 Bhatt. Bye Bye Krabi.

Before I start, I want to emphasize that this is the most tiring day of my entire trip, not simply because this is the third day and I’m running out of energy. Today the driver was very punctual, he came right on time at 8.30am to pick us up. Along with another 2 groups of people. There are a total of 8 people, all from KL and 2 from Singapore. The journey to our first destination, the Hot Spring took about an hour. Midway, the rain started and we’re getting worried it might ruin our day. Fortunately, when we arrive at the destination, the rain stopped (or maybe didn’t start at all). The place is simply called ‘Hot Spring Waterfall’ near Krabi Town.

Dipping at Hot Spring Waterfall, Krabi Town

The hot spring pool that is open to public is relatively small. It can barely accommodate 10 people and all I can see is just a strong current of river flowing, but high waterfall pouring is nowhere to be found. We spent about 45 minutes there and then we depart for our next destination.

Long walk towards the Emerald Pool

Once we reach Emerald Pool, we are in awe and wonder how the water can be so clear. Just like chlorinated swimming pool. From the entrance itself, we can see small streams of river flowing, but to reach the Emerald Pool itself we had to walk nearly 1km long on the muddy path.

Emerald Pool

When we finally reached the pool, the view of the big natural pool is astounding. The water is crystal clear and I suspect they definitely chlorinated it. Mr. B who is full of curiosity and ever adventurous attempt to search for the infamous blue pool. I was wondering where did he learn about the existence of it and regret agreeing to go along when the walk towards the pool took me forever. Before I forget, I want to emphasize that most of the wooden plank were either damage or rotten or eaten up by termites. When I find ourselves in the middle of nowhere, I felt a surge of panic attack and wondering if we never make it back, will they send out a rescue to team (with german shepherd) to look for us. There is not a single soul along the way and only us. I imagine the headline reads : A Malaysian couple lost in Thailand while searching for the exotic blue pool.

Broken wooden plank towards the Blue Pool

Thank God, at last we found it. The place indeed exist and it actually looks creepy to me. No wonder there is a sign saying ‘No swimming’. Who knows what monster lives in there and excreting blue substances.

Creepy Blue Pool

I almost sprint all the way back to the Emerald Pool worrying if I delayed much longer, some wild animals might sense our presence and decided to check on us. After spending a short time dipping in the Emerald Pool, we walked to a nearby restaurant for our lunch. There is one tomyam soup and 6 dishes. Not bad, considering our past experience with tour package lunch, this is by far the best.

Lunch at a restaurant near Emerald Pool

With our stomaches fully satisfied, we depart for our elephant ride. We were pretty excited as this is our first time riding on a giant mammal. Julia Robert in Eat, Pray, Love comes to my mind.

Elephant ride

Right after the completion of 50 minutes of elephant ride. I made a new resolution not to ride any more elephants. The poor mammal looks old and lack of motivation to even walk. And I do not understand why the man keep smacking at the poor fella. I wish I could throw verbal abuse towards the man and report to WWF or SPCA. Make him feel sorry for what he had done and beg for forgiveness. However, I know I doesn’t have the guts for such heroic action. Therefore, I just decided not to ride them anymore in future, hoping they would eventually run out of business and have to release the elephant back into the jungle or sanctuary. Julia Roberts, you shouldn’t ride either.

Warning sign at Tiger Cave Temple

Our last destination is the Tiger Cave Temple, which is the main reason of my complaint earlier in the post. You might think it looks like an ordinary temple from the outside. But I’m so wrong. Hidden behind its facade is a total of 1,237 steps to the top of the mountain temple. If you think Batu Caves steps are tedious, imagine 5 times the amount of steps. And some of the steps here are so steep, I practically need to climb with both my hands.

Father’s Love : A man carrying his daughter down the thousands steps

Just after scaling through 200 steps, I’m already half dead. Mr. B keep encouraging me, but mentally I’m already start cursing about this expedition. People on holiday are supposed to be relaxing and enjoying themselves, here we are torturing our knees. I might need to do a MRI back in Malaysia to check on my ligaments.

While I was huffing and puffing away trying to catch my breath, there are this Caucasian couple bickering in front of me. The wife was complaining to her husband that this is torturing her (I totally agree) and she should be in her hotel sleeping instead (I want to give her a High 5). At this time, Mr. B is nowhere to be seen. I bet he already at the top of the mountain. What’s wrong with these men?

The top mountain of Tiger Cave Temple

Okay, there is a temple on top of the mountain. Quite nice actually. But that doesn’t worth the 1 hour torture of my knee and another half hour to descend. When we finally reached the landing, surprisingly with my knee still intact, I’m not surprise to find out that among our group, only 2 of us went for the climb. The rest of the group just sit there and waited for us for 1 1/2 hour.

We will be joining the Phi Phi Island 1 Day Tour today. After having our breakfast and start waiting for the driver to pick us up at 8.30am, he failed to show up until almost 9.30am. Restless Mr. B called to check them up for 3 times. Our group consist of 25 person (if I didn’t count wrongly), 8 from Malaysia, including us, 2 from India and the rest Caucasians. While we were waiting to board the speedboat, we came across the same couple who took the Shuttle Bus with us yesterday. We introduced ourselves, and start exchanging numbers. They guy named KC, but I can’t remember the woman’s name. Maybe Mr. B can recalled. Is human nature that we tend to only remember opposite sex names, right? They suggested that we should share a taxi back to the airport on Tuesday, which we happily agreed.

Boarding the speedboat for Phi Phi Island Tour

Our first destination is the Bamboo Island, where we given 45 minutes to swim and sun bath by the beach. Our next stop is Lohsamah Bay and Maya, which quite similar to Bamboo Island, but with washroom available and we can walk around within the island. Our tour guide informed us that Maya Bay was the film location for Leonardo DiCaprio’s ‘The Beach’. We haven’t watch the movie yet, therefore was unable to find any intimate resemblance of any kind.

Bamboo Island Beach Maya Bay Beach

Then we were brought to Viking Cave for some sightseeing. There are people actually staying in the cave itself, looking after the caves and hunting for bird nest at the same time. We then make a pit stop at Phi Phi Don for our lunch break. As we need to head back to the pier at 2pm, we didn’t have enough time to finish exploring the entire Phi Phi Don, which is full of shops selling food and souvenir. We swear that on our next trip to Krabi we will just take a direct speedboat to Phi Phi Don and shop the whole day without any time limit (and cash limit).

Phi Phi Don's Street

Our last stop, is Hin Klarng where we started our snorkelling activities. There are some fishes and corals, but not comparable to those we saw in Redang or Perhentian.

The tour guide showing us a sea urchin

We reached back our hotel at 5pm, feeling all tired and exhausted from the long day. But right after we washed up and rested, we continue to take a stroll down the street for some food and souvenir again. Nothing like a shopping can gives me a burst of new energy.

Ao Nang Night Street

We can’t recalled how far we had walked, but we almost came to an end of all the endless shops and found this Ao Nang Meeting Point Plaza. It resembles Malaysia pasar malam, but with a public gambling area where you can place your bets. I wonder why Mr. B didn’t take of photo of it. Argg!! We also came across a man selling fried WORMS and COCKROACHES!! They looks really crispy, but we are not brave enough to try.

Fried worms and cockroaches at Ao Nang Meeting Point Plaza

After scouting through all the foods available around Ao Nang, we personally felt that the BBQ chicken thigh at the hawker selling at 50 Bhatt is the yummiest of them all.

Despite the recent news on the seriousness of flood surrounding Bangkok, we were lucky that Krabi was not being affected. This is our first trip to Thailand, and we started off with the more quiet ambience of Krabi. We took a shuttle bus from the Krabi Airport to Ao Nang beach for 150 Bhat per person. The driver asked for our hotel name and claimed that he will fetch us till the doorstep. However, we were surprised that we and another couple traveller were being dropped off at a tour agency named Krabi Somporn Travel & Service before we even reach Ao Nang beach. We were greeted by a friendly salesman trying to sell us their tour package. I’m starting to wonder that if we didn’t purchase any from them, will they still send us back to our hotel. Finally, after much bargaining, we settled for 110 Bhatt for Phi Phi Island Tour per pax and 110 Bhatt for Elephant Trekking + Tiger Cave Temple tour per pax. After payments were made, we were driven to the hotel by a taxi driver named. Mr. Sak Sringam, who offered us 400 Bhatt for a trip back to the airport on our return day.

The hotel we booked from Agoda.com is the Ao Nang Buri Resort, which is situated along Ao Nang Beach. But the hotel location is 10 minutes walk away from the busy Ao Nang street market, which provide us a peaceful and serene evening.

Ao Nang Buri Resort superior room

Ao Nang Buri Resort pool view

After exploring the hotel facilities, which isn’t much apart from the pool, we headed out to explore the Ao Nang beach and its streets. We first came across the Wangsai Seafood Restaurant by the seaside. We ordered Pineapple Fried Rice, Thai Soup, Mango Salad and a coconut for our early dinner. Their clear Thai Soup is just too sour for our taste. Total cost 400 Bhatt.

Wangsai Seafood Restaurant

There are endless shops selling graphic T-shirts and also hawker stall selling variety of pancake. We tried the famous banana pancake that came highly recommended by our friend for 40 Bhatt. It resembles Roti Banana in Malaysia, but with a more crispy skin and much tastier due to the chocolate fudge.

Banana Pancake

Later on, we came across any hawker stall that only sell it at 20 Bhatt. We will remember to buy another from this stall tomorrow. I then started my scouting spree for best prices for souvenir to buy for my family. The first item I bought is a ‘I LOVE Krabi’ T-shirt for my sister for 150 Bhatt.

Ao Nang Beach sunset

Meanwhile, we caught the sunset by the Ao Nang beach and decided to make a pit stop sitting by the beach and enjoy the scenery.